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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1914)
J)iiiiifl1'v The Omaha- Sunday Bee Magazine Page - : ' - - mmmms i raH cm HI LAKJJJ Why Honest Witnesses Often DO NOT and CANNOT TELL the TRUTH THE difficulty of establishing a person's identity be yond shadow of doubt is one of the most per plexing with, which lawyers, Judges and Jurors Siave to contend in proving any one guilty or Innocent of a given crime. It is nothing unusual for two witnesses of equally feign Intelligence and credibility to flatly contradict each other as to the identity of the person thoy both saw committing a aaurder, robbery-or other crlmo. One will declare under oath that the prisoner is the man he saw; the other will swear with equal positlveness that he is nothing like him. , Aa eveybody knows, pofectly honest witnesses do not tell the truth, and psychology has lately found out that they cannot The reasons why this Is so are clearly explained by Professor 0. Sully, of King's College, Lon don. Jones is, say, a porter at a country station, says Pro cessor Sully. On a certain night the half-dozen passen cors by tho last uptralu have taken their Beats when, as tho train starts, another rushes up and scrambles in. Now if Jones were to be Questioned about this noxt day, can psychology say how much he will bo able to report correctly! Much will depend upon Jones. If ho could be subjet4 to a "testimony experiment" wo could bet ter forsa an opinion. As it is, we can only say, proba bly muck lets than, is commonly supposed. ' To take aa actual' instance. In the course of a meet tag of a aclentlio association, held in Germany during ta carnival, a clown suddenly rushes in, pursued by a ro with a revolver. Iu the middle of the iwm they strsasW, there U a pistol sfcot and they are out again. Tfca president, with serious air, asks each member to writ town as full a report as he can of the matter la Mistakes in Identity Are Due to Oiir Short Memories and to the Fact That We Never See All We Imagine We Do case of inquiries. No ono but himself knows that the whole thing has been prearranged and photographed. When tho reports como to be examined It appears that though written immediately after the ovent by trained scientists, only one has omitted lesB than 20 per cent of tho characteristic acts; one-third have omitted moro than 50 per cent, and in one-quarter more than W per cent of thq statements are free inventions. Ono is apt to bo surprised that so much should bo "forgotten" so quickly, but qulto apart from the fact that forgetting goes on rapidly at first, later moro slowly, tho "seeing" In tho first instanco is not tho direct, com plete mirroring of tho actual that It seems to be. Per ception is a complex process, involving Interpretation and offering many loopholes to illusion. Its apparent completeness is itself largely an illusion, duo to tho facts that tho actual sensations of a given instant nro automatically supplemented by tho results of previous experience, and that whllo tho object is before us in completeness is remedied as soon as felt by movements of tho attention. If ono looks, with ono eye closed, at tho 'wall of a room, tho pattern of tho paper is "soon" as uniform over tho whole visual field. Nevertheless' every eyo has a, totally blind spot, and from ono portion of tho wall no sensations aro received at all; wo "fill in" this part in harmony with tho rest of tho visual field. Tho oxistonce of tho blind spot may cosily be demonstrated. On a enact bf paper make a small cross, and two or three inches to the right of it a black spot some half an inch in dlamotor. Closing tho loft eyo and fixating tho cross move the papor toward or away from tho oye; at about eight inches the spot will disappear. To4 illustrate the "filling in" a thick lino or bar may bo drawn, having a break of half an inch about two inches from one end. On fixating this end and making the gap fall upon the blind spot, tho two portions of the lino seem to becomo continuous. Again, in reading, we seem to see all tho letters. In reality the eyo moves along tho lino' in tbroo or four Jumps, soing nothing except at the halting points, and then only the genoral "optical rhythm" of the words, and a largo proportion of tho letters may be changed without preventing us from reading tho words "correct ly," The most absurd misprints may bo overlooked tlmo after time. Cross tho second finger behind tho first, leaving a V shapod space botween tho finger tips. In this spuco put somo object suoh as a pea or the shaft of a pencil, so as to touch the two Angora equally; the object will then be felt as two, Tho illusion is aided if the eyos aro closed or turned in some other direction. This is tho so-called "Aristotle's experiment." Make a tube of about one inch diameter and six to twelve inches long by rolling a sheet of paper. Look through the tube with the right eye, and hold the open left hand before the left eyo close against the side of "Look through the tube with the right eye, and hold the open left eye dote gainst the tide of the tube. You will then item to be looking through a round hole in your hand." "Cross the aecond finfier behind the first, leaving a V-shaped spaie be tween the finger tips. In this space put a pencil, ao ft to touch the two fingers equally; the' object will then be felt as two." tho tube. You will then seom to be looking through a round holo in your hand. All thoao illusions depend upon ap plying a mode of interpretation based upon the conditions of normal ex perience to exceptional or catch con ditions where it lead to false results. Thus in ordinary life tho outer surfaces of the first and second fingers con be touched simultaneously only by two objects, and so touches at these points continue to "moan" two objects, even in the unfamiliar crossed position. Again, normally, zoth eyos seo the samo objects, and so "we interpret our visual sensations as meaning not two sepnrato fields of viBlon but one; although wo actually have two eyes, wo combine tho information glvon by them and seem to bo looking through one oye situated between the two real ono. In the special case of tho tube tho two oyes aro really looking at different things; tho right ono looka through a holo, tho left one sees a hand, and the usual method of combining yields tho result a hand with a hole through itl To return to Jones: it is then probable that ho would in any caso be unable to give a very exact description of tho belated passenger. But as it is the papers aro full next day of a murder in tho neighborhood. It is rumored that tho murderer travelled to town by tho train in quostlon, and later an arrest is made of a young man, tall and well-dressod, Jones thinks of his passen ger, and begins to ask himself whether tho description agrees with his memory-Imago. Now, mental images what tho "mind's eyo" sees do not only arise as copies of what we have perceived; overy description that wo hear, every Btory wo read, gives us images of the scenes and characters, some tlmoa so vividly that illustrations to a book proviouly read without them may be Indignantly repudiated as "all wrong," though conflicting with nothing in tho text Botween such images, duo to Interpretative imagina tion, and the images of memory proper thore Is no sharp line or certain criterion. Tho more Jones thinks and reads about tho mat ter, then, the loss clear becomes the distinction between his memory-Imago and his interpretative image, and the Burer ho grows that they represent the Barao man, till at last ho goes to the pollco and' reports, describing the passenger as a young man, well dressed, tall and fair. Next comes the confrontation. Jones is, remember, al ready well on tho way to bellove that the man he re members is tho suspect (or bp "vould not bo there), and his "memory" is probably a utend of genuino (but not necessarily accurate) memories with items read or hoard. The prisoner is pretty certain to have somo re semblance to the criminal sinco appearanco will, in most cases, have .been a determining factor in his arrest. Jones Bees a man who fits bis expectation sufficiently to give riso to tho feeling of familiarity or known-ness, and suggestion does tho rest. Now since tho actual recognizing consists essentially in a percept feeling familiar or known, It follows that it the accused has onco been identified, subsequent identi fication by tho samo witness can hardly bo moro than a matter of form. Accordingly, everything depends on this first identification, which becomes an essential, even a vital, part of tho trial, and must bo subject to pvery safeguard possible. For instance, tho witness should Be on his oath, not only or even mainly to guard against lyingfor this purpose it is sadly Ineffectual but rather because of its effect on the conscientious man in mak ing him apply all the caution and self-criticism of which he is capable. In passing one may point out that an absurdly oxaggoratod importance is commonly attached to tho question of deliberate lying. Indeed, the fallacy Involved in supposing that either a witness is lying or what ho says 1b objectively truo has been perhaps tho most fruitful one in tho hlatory of human superstition and injustice. For fewer have been condemned on per jured evidenco than on falso given in good faith. From what has been said of tho psychology of recog nition. It will be clear that there aro two main dangers: (1) that the fusion giving rise to tho feeling of recogni tion will be really of what Is seen with those elements of tho imago which aro duo to newspaper accounts, and so on, and not with tho elements due to memory; and (2) that the euggestlvo force of expectation will bear down any remaining differences botween Image and per cept. Now tho group method will, at its best, weaken the definiteness of tho suggestion the witness, Instead of knowing that tho man before him is the accused, will only know that one of the ten before him is the accused. But this iwill foe truo only If the other nine cannot at once bo eliminated 'because of their manner, or because they obviously disagree with what Is a matter of com mon knowledge about tho accused. How the UNFRIENDLY MICROBES ATTACK US SINCS Pasteur's great dlseevwy of the fcv clllus of anthrax, tho part played by mi crobes in ' the universe has constantly grown in Importance, until it is now thought by many e of science that thoy are tho chief actors in its life. Plants, as everyone knows, take carbon from the c&rbonlo-acld gas found in the atmosphere, tum it into starch, celluloso, sugars and oils, and thereby storo up onorgy. When tho plant is eaten by an animal, it furnishes tho eater with glycogen and tats, which aro in their turn con verted into muscular work. Tho onorgy thus put at the disposal of living beings comes in the first instance from the sun, but it la made avail able largely by means of microbes. Microbes prepare the soli for "vegetation and Agriculture, and accumulate in tho earth the aitrcge that we absorb with cereal food, Thoy uvea help to break up rocks, and thus to produce earth that can be worked, while they aro among the chief aents of fermentation and dlgostion. t in apttc of all this, microbes lvo for the majority a bad name, and most peoplo look on. them rather as the enemies of life than as Its helpers and friends. This is largely due to the behavior of a relatively small class among them who arc agents and effective causes of cer taia aawtal diseases by reason of the poisons or toxins watch they manufacture in the system. One ka only to mention the bacilli of tuber uleU, or diphtheria, of smallpox, and the vlbrie of cholora to show how terriblo Is their work in this respect; and yet those dreaded agents of death aro in themselves a kind of sport, being Bpoolos which the struggle for existence through Which all organisms pass, has armed with the weapons thoy uso against us. Most of them aro parasites which can only llvo at the expense of an animal or vegetable host and in a medium which thoy have to create for themselves. Pas teur showed that their virulence could be abato'd or oven abolished altogether by providing them with another medium; and the reverse of the picture was shown when another investigator succeeded in producing pathogenic or disease causing bacilli by introducing into the peritoneal cavitios of guinea-pigs and rabbits microbes whose normal function is to reduce to thotr chemical constituents as quickly as possible tho tissues of dead plants. Fortunately for ua, if the parasite can thus use .means for making good his habitation at the expense of the host, the host is not without allies which enable him to make harmless the parasite. The most efficient of these are in the majority of cases the leucocytes or whlto corpuscles of the blood, which act, as is eo often said, aa police men in arresting and rendering harmless the invader. Yet his route e-f attack are many and various. By the bites of lasects, the microbes causing cnalarla, yellow fever and sleeping sickness all pass directly into the blood, Others gain an entry -Into the intestinal canal by the medium of food containing putrofactlvo bacteria either gen erated therein or deposited on it by files. And latoly It has como to bo seen that a great carrier of harmful microbes is the air. Professors Trillat and Fouassler, in a recent communication to tho Academy of Sciences, showed that tho email vesicles or water-drops present in tho atmosphero form a medium In which many pathogonlo mlcrohos will multiply and flourish; and Professor Bordas has given it as his opinion that this is one of the chief routes of transmission for tho bacillus of typhoid fever. This microbe, which is tho samo as that which causes typhus, or the dlseaso of damps, is prob ably always with us, but has llttlo effect nave on enfeebled bodies or thoso suffering from actual lesions of tho tissues. It generates most quickly In moist and tranquil air, but seems In capable of reproduction If the air is dried and kept moving. ' The Investigation now proceeding into its means of transmission will doubtloss throw light upon the attacks of this and other mlcrohos; but in the meaqtlme it may he said that overcrowd ing eeems one cause of their increase. The filtering of water and tho avoidance of certain foods aro rightly recommended as prophylactlo measures; but It may well be that in open win dows, woll warmed houses, and the avoidance ol crowds, we havo even more effectlvo means of protection against our unwelcome guestn. Horses Pull Better with SHORT TRACES I T is a great question among teamsters whether a horse can pull better with short traces or long traces, that is, whether it is bettor for the horse to be close to the load or further away. Their general consensus of opin ion Is that short traces aro better, and, as In most cases where there Is great experience, thoy are probably right To understand tho proposition i Is well to remember that it takes a great deal more energy to pull tho load at moving than It does to pull it at uniform speed. Also it takes a great deal moro energy to pull the load at vary ing speed than at uniform speed. This is easy to see whon wo remember that when a body Is pulled along at uniform speed -on a lovel surface the only thing to bo oyercomo by tbo tractivo force is the friction at the axles. On tho other hand, when the pace ets faster an accel eration is given it and there is only one thing that glvc3 an acceleration, and that Is a force. Bo when tho load changes speed a forco must bo added to tho forco to overcome friction, thug making it harder on tho horse. Of course, the same thing applies to any moving body. Tho condition of least effort is uniform speed on a level plane. Now, to apply this to the problem stated above simply Imagine a horse hitched to a loaded wagon and going at uniform speed, but imagine the traces to bo one hundred feet long. If tho wagon goes over an inequality of the ground (say down hill slightly) the traces, of course, slacken up greatly, and before the horse, going at the samo uniform speed ns before, can tako up tho slack, tho wagon may havo come to rest, or slowed down consider ably. Bo to, bring it bRck up to previous speed the horse ' has to exert extra force. ' Now, In a short trace the stretch of the loather is mucH less than in long ones, and so, if the wagon starts any thing it simply shoves the horse ahead and he has no slack to take up. In using, short traces, too, there is much less danger of tholr breaking, for the load Is folt by tho horse before he has moved his body very far, and his forco is applied gently and evenly, whereaa If ho Jumped forward with a slack long trace he would have acquired considerable velocity when tho traces bocaroo taut, and, trying to move the load Instantly would Inevitably snap tho tracos. MORE BOYS to Be Born Than GIRLS D TIRING tho next twenty years it Is probable that many more boys will be born than girls and it is expected that this dis proportion will bo largo enough to mako up for tho present over-supply of women. That there are too many women In the world Is very evident. The suffrage ' movement and other plans , to give women more Indepen dence are largely duo to this femi nine over-supply. It thero were an exactly equal number of men and -women, and if each lived equally long, thero would bo no need for women tq enter busi ness life, because there would be a husband for each one. As it now la, thero are not enough husbands to go around and this brings such an ele ment of chance Into the marriage Chemical Tests Prove COFFEE MORE STIMULATING THAN TEA TO the average consumer of the beveragGi coffee and tea seem distinctly different, but as a matter of scientific fact they are very much alike. In certain ways they ought to affect us sim ilarly, for they both contain the alkaloli called catfeln, which, as has ipng been known, is a powerful stimulant of tho central nervous cystem. It is generally admitted, however, that the two beverages, although having this ona thing da common, afford different results. Tea, it la -well to point out, contains a much larger pro portion of the alkaloid than coffee, but in the preparation of tea in ordinary domestic prac. tise a much smaller quantity of material is used than is the caso with coffee, Since tea contains from 3 to per cent of c&ffela, and coffee seldom more than 1 per cent, it follows that as regards this alkaloid both infusions of coffee and tea made on corn son domestic lines will contain practically the same araout of catfeln, volume for volume t luld. The inference is that whether it be a cup of coffee or of tea, the dose of alkaloid will be the same. But according to the present In vestigation the catfeln in coffee infusion has 'quite different associates irom those in tea. This would appear to bo tho case, inasmuch as -while little catfeln is extracted from tea by cold water, we tlnd that praotlcally the whole of tho c$ffetn in coffee is taken out. There seems to be llttlo doubt that the caffoln in tea Is tor the most part combined . with tannin in tho form of caffein tannate, which is not very soluble In cold water, but is easily soluble in hot water. English chem ists, who have been investigating the matter, think this la nn important observation, for it points to tho probability of caffein existing in coffee in a quite difforent form which is easily soluble in cold water, Subsequent experiments showed that the c&ffela in coffee is combined with a peculiar acid allied possibly to tannlo acid, but ex hibiting different properties from the tannin present in tea. Thus this acid (It has been called caffetannlc acid by some observers) is not particularly astringent, has a sour coffee like taste, and, in fact, shows altogether dif ferent properties from tho tannic add of tea. As the caffein tannate of tea is precipi tated by weak adds, it must be precipitated by the gastria Juice, and therefore tho caffein is probably not absorbed until it passes beyond tho stomach. In coffee, however, tho caffein is soluble in both alakllne and ncld fluids, and therefore tho absorption of tho alkaloid prob ably takes place in the stomach. As coffee is generally considered more stim ulating than tea, perhaps these findings may explain it. They may very well also explain why coffee Is often used a a poison antidote, and tea rarely. Aa a writer In the Lancet points out, cof fee is often mado with a generous propor tion of the powdered bean as in the case of the after-dinner "black" coffee, the view being that the secret of good coffee Is to make it strong. This, of course, is an entirely eBthetlo demand, which may likely enough be opposed to physiological morality. question that most girls think It wise to safo-guard themselves against the possibility of never marrying by learning to make their living in somo other way. Tho youngor a woman is when she gets married, the more likely that most of her children will be. girls; tho older she Is at marriage, tho greater the likelihood that her chil dren will be boys. Recent investi gations have shown that where women havo become mothers at nineteen years or younger, thero was an average of forty-four girls to twenty-nine boys born. In tho case of women who were between nine teen and twenty-four years of age when married, the figures showed on average of fifty-three girls to forty five boys. Between the years of twenty-four and thirty-two, the pro portions gradually became less and between the years of thirty-two and thirty-six, boys and girls were born, in equal proportions. From thirty six to forty-two, the proportion was fifty-two boys to forty-ono girls and between the ages of forty-two and forty-eight, it was sixty-four boys to twenty-Beven girls. Tho two or three preceding gener ations have been as notable for marrying young as the present generation is for waiting until later in lite. It follows that the preceding generations had more girls than boys, and that the present gener ation Ib likely to havo more boys than girls. The larger the number of girls, tho greater opportunity a man has to make his choice and tho less ho feels tho need of haste. Whero women are few, a man Is more likely to take advantage of the first oppor tunity to secure a wife, lest other chances should not arise. Again, tho girl who is self-supporting is well aware that marriage implies tho stoppage of many privileges and sho is therefore less ready to re spond to the advances of a lover. The high cost of living also helps prohibit early marriage. All these conditions tend to delay tho age of marriage. Our grand mothers married when they were seventeen or eighteen years of age, our mothers -when they were twenty one or twenty-two. During tho last ten years tho average age of mar riage has advanced to twenty-four or twenty-five. The rate of delay Is increasing and shortly will havo reached the point at which more boys will bo born than girls, and for a generation or two boy babies will be in tho majority and girl babies will be few and far between. Within two or three generations this will mako more men than women In the world and will of itself- make a tre mendous difference in the whole question of women's sphere and women's work. Finding Out How "WILL-O'-THE-WISPS" GET THEIR LIGHT By Dr. L. K. Hirshbcrg. NOT long ago, every neighborhood bad Its doleful folktale of how some unhappy mortal lured into the marshes among tho boggy moors and swamps, by Wlll-o-the-Wlsps, or 6t Anthony's fire, went to his untimely death while pursuing what he thought was a guiding beam of light from some pio neer's cabin. Hitherto the usually accepted explanation has been that the spontaneous combustion of marsh gas, which How OIL Makes the ROUGHEST SEAS SMOOTH The Difference Between the Thickness of the Oil Film on the Crest and in the Trough of the Wave Creates a Tension Which Qaiekly Pull Down the Crest. The Result Is That the WhoU Wava Is Finally Lowered te a Level Like That Indicated hy the. lotted Lines. THE valuahte part played by the oil tank steamer Narragansett at the time of the VeitHrao disaster has renewed Interest 1m, tit w of oil in calming troubled waters and saris saiM from wreck. Scientists say that ra sf ail, properly applied, will smother square xeet or rouga seas, and nine pint " ' ' ' "' I UN Jill Caw of Wav 5 is the same gas that occurs in mines and causes ser ious catastrophes there, or electric discharges in a damp atmosphere caused the wlll-o'-the-wlsp. Its elusive nature Is now recognized by pr. Henry Watklns and others to be due to a continuous sparking and Ignition of the gas as it comes in contact with fresh draughts and strata of oxygen.. Its glow Is bo tween a dim blue alcohol light and a real phosphores cence. Now a conservative British savant, Prof. Hayward Cooper of The Leeds Instituto of Science, has Just de scribed the results of a careful investigation into the will-o'-the-wisp superstition. Ho visited mines, marsh es, and sailed on ships that brought tales of the "swamp lights," and he refutes all the commonly accepted scientlflo explanations. Professor Cooper says that although some of the Jack-o'-lanterns may have been a spontaneous ignition of vapora from swampy bogs as well as mines, and some of these may have been luminescent insects such as glowworms and fireflies, yet he was able to literally capture from the topmasts and in the rigging of several Bblps, what the sailors In awesome tones alwaya called wlllro'-the-wisps or jack-o'-lanterns. Thoy were nothing more or less than luminescent owls and smaller birds of nocturnal habits. These winged creatures had skimmed over the waters or touched the surfaces of the marshes and the phos phorescent, luminous moisture had clung to them as they took flight When they momentarily rested or flew about whero the conditions were proper this phosphorescence was visible. Some of these 'birds were the white owls, while many others wera much smaller sea-birds. of oil will, cover a square mile of water with a film sufficient to prevent Its breaking Into waves. This oil film is effective when so thin that it is almost unimaginable. Oil is most effective when the water is very deep and tha heaviest,, thickest oils show tha best results. Tho beat method of applying oil from a ship at sea is to hang over the aide eo The. Oil, Starting in the Trough -of the Wave (A), Works Its Way Straight to tho Crest (B). At the Crest the Film Becomes Thicker Because It Thero Has a Much Narrower Space Over Which to Spread, that they will Jutt touch the water small canvas bags holding from one to two gallons of oil. Holes aro pricked in the bag with a mail needle to facilitate the leakage of the oil. Tho use of oil in lessening; tho force of storms at sea was well known to the ancients, lndud lng the officers of Pliny's; fleet, who practised It 1,800 years ago. Copyright, 1914, by the Star Company. Why LIFE Is a CONTINUOUS DEATH LrviNO is a continuous process of dying. When we cease to die we cease to live. One can readily understand this by means of a very concrete ex ample. Suppose you arise some cold morning and find that the fire in your furnace has "gone out." It will do no good to utter malicious invectives against the poor furnace. Just philosophize as follows: "My furnace has ceased to die) In other words. It has ceased to con sume that very expensive article called coal The con tinual consumption of coal is fire or life in the furnace. When the consumption or dying ceased tho fire or Ufa ceased." Accordingly, you proceed to make the fur nace "die" some more. "What Is true of the furnace is true of ourselves. All organlo lite exists in a state of continuous decom position and rebuilding or a continuous state of dying and living. As soon as decomposition ceases recoa- Oreat Britain Rights Reserved. etructlon censes, or, in common terms, as soon as we cease dying wo cease living. Certain poisons, If swal lowed by a human being, destroy life by annihilating the decomposing or dying process which is necessary for life. When they enter the system a chemical com pound is formed which resists decomposition. Upon ex amination of the dead body it will be found that putre faction does not take place. With these poisons In tho body thero is no process of dying; hence there Is no life. The same truth holds in regard to our mental and moral existence. If we cease to struggle or think and 2xo content to ilvo a purely animal life, the activity ot our brain powers quickly ceases and we are mentally dead. Struggle, action, aspiration is dying, but it means living. Introduce the poison of vice, and there is a cessation ot mental life as fatal as that caused to tha body by arsenic
